President Donald Trump reignited his decades-long feud with comedian Rosie O’Donnell on Saturday, taking to Truth Social to say he was considering revoking her citizenship.
“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote. “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
It appears the president’s message was likely meant in jest to provoke a reaction, and CNN gave him exactly what he wanted by reporting the story and asking so-called experts about the Constitutionality of his remarks.
Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at Georgetown Law, called Trump’s post “patently unconstitutional.”
“For good reasons, it is difficult to denaturalize a U.S. citizen and even harder to expatriate one,” Vladeck wrote back in April. “Congress has provided for only a handful of circumstances in which the executive branch is empowered to pursue such a move, and the Supreme Court has recognized meaningful constitutional limits and an entitlement to meaningful judicial review even in those cases.”
CNN has reached out to the White House to ask what prompted the post, but O’Donnell recently drew attention after posting a video to TikTok slamming the Trump administration’s response to the Texas floods. In the video, she claimed Trump had “gutted all of the early warning systems and the weathering forecast abilities of the government,” which she said hampered the federal response.
O’Donnell moved to Ireland shortly before Trump’s inauguration. In an April interview with CNN, she said Trump’s reelection was what pushed her to leave.
“I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my nonbinary child to leave the country,” she told Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown. “I have no regrets. Not a day has gone by that I thought it was the wrong decision. I was welcomed with open arms.”
Responding to Trump’s post on Saturday, O’Donnell wrote on Instagram, “you want to revoke my citizenship? go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. i’m not yours to silence. i never was.”
Trump and O’Donnell have clashed since at least 2006, after O’Donnell — then a co-host of The View — called Trump a “snake oil salesman on Little House On The Prairie” and claimed he went bankrupt, which Trump denied.
Over the years, Trump has called O’Donnell “a real loser,” “crude, rude, obnoxious, and dumb,” and “a pig.”
During a White House meeting with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin in March, Trump took aim at actress Rosie O’Donnell for relocating to Ireland.
When a reporter asked Irish Martin why he permitted the American comedian to move to the country, Trump quickly responded.
“Ireland is known for very happy, fun-loving people,” a reporter noted to Martin at the White House.
“Why in the world would you let Rosie O’Donnell move to Ireland?” the reporter asked. “I think she is going to lower your happiness.”
Before Martin could answer, Trump jumped in and responded, “That’s true, I like that question. Do you know you have Rosie O’Donnell? Do you know who she is? You’re better off not knowing.”
Trump made these remarks after the comedian disclosed that she had been residing in Ireland and was in the process of applying for Irish citizenship.
“It’s been pretty wonderful, I have to say,” the 62-year-old said in a video on TikTok. “And the people have been so loving, so kind and so welcoming. And I’m very grateful.”